This pocket watch was recovered from the sunken Union gunboat USS Cairo. The watch has jeweled hands and is marked on the back “cylinder escapement” and “Girardier, Geneva.”
The USS Cairo, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, was sunk by two Confederate torpedoes on the Yazoo River in December 1862 while engaged in operations against Confederate defenses on the Yazoo. The Cairo has the dubious distinction of becoming the first ship sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30270
